My grandmother always did it with a 20 or 30 gallon Redwing crock. The big crock we have has a hairline crack in it so it leaks. These were put up in 5 gallon pails which works too. Just put the whole melons in the pail tightly, add water and put pickling spices in a cloth bag. Water has to be above the top melon and needs to have a large cover to push melons below the waterline. We use a large glass serving plate and we have a plastic cover on the pail. Grandma had cloth on the very top of the crock. Let set for a few months and that is all that's to it.

The old Germans around here all pickled melons this way years ago.